This level of mastery is timeless, and although the movie is overly deliberate at times, when it takes off, it really flies.
Rashomon(羅生門)
✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
Japan · 1950
1h 28m
Director Akira Kurosawa
Starring Toshirō Mifune, Machiko Kyō, Takashi Shimura, Masayuki Mori
Genre Crime, Drama, Mystery
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Through ingenious use of camera and flashbacks, four people recount different versions of the story of a man's murder and the rape of his wife in this Kurosawa classic. Brimming with action while incisively examining the nature of truth, "Rashomon" is perhaps the finest film ever to investigate the philosophy of justice.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
The film is still one of the most glorious testaments to the frustrations and exhilarations of chasing an unvarnished truth.
ReelViews by James Berardinelli
Today, nearly fifty years after it was made, Rashomon has lost none of its fascination or power. It's still a marvelous piece of cinema that asks unanswerable questions of great import.
Chicago Reader by Jonathan Rosenbaum
Film is still an impressive piece of work, visually and rhythmically masterful.
Kurosawa is always worth a look but this is a particular classic that has influenced so much to come, it's almost essential.
The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw
Akira Kurosawa's 1950 masterwork is a chilling, utterly memorable dissection of the nature of human communication.
The wonder of Rashomon is that while the shadowplay of truth and memory is going on, we are absorbed by what we trust is an unfolding story.
Every element in the film, from the dense thicket of forest branches to master cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa's deceptive framing and lighting design, is precisely calibrated to make the facts more difficult to discern.
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A fascinating look at the subjectivity of the human experience, as the film explores the differing flashbacks of people who experienced the exact same event. The film questions what is "true" and the objectivity of the camera through these flashbacks, and while it is not one of my favorite films narrative-wise, I think it does something really interesting and innovative around these themes of perspective and justice.
A powerful statement on justice and an absolute clinic in cinematographic storytelling.